


Ficlet Collection

by orphan_account



Category: KARA (Band), Miss A, f(x), 소녀시대 | Girls' Generation | SNSD
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hipsters, Alternate Universe - Mr. Taxi (Music Video), Alternate Universe - Rock Band, Alternate Universe - Tell Me Your Wish (Genie) Music Video, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Angels, Animal Death, F/F, Female Genital Mutilation, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Halloween, Jealousy, Kidnapping, Member Departure, Missing Persons, Multi, Pining, Pirates, Public Sex, School, Sex Tapes, Shooting Stars, cosmetic surgery, sleuthing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-30
Updated: 2017-01-30
Packaged: 2018-09-20 21:52:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 29
Words: 10,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9517670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: A collection of ficlets posted in 2011.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica goes missing twenty minutes before they're due on stage.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=20864976#t20864976) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica goes missing twenty minutes before they're due on stage.

It's a Halloween-themed concert (fitting for the October chill, though Halloween isn't for another three weeks and Seohyun has effectively banned trick-or-treating in the dorms, anyway -- "A shame," Yuri whistles lowly, "but I guess that means more candy for Sooyoung!"), and somewhere between Tiffany applying her eyeliner, thick and dark and smoky, and Sunny catching her by the elbow to snatch up her attention and subsequently twirl around with her in her fashionably-ripped and blood-soaked wedding gown ("I'm the Bride of Frankenstein!" she tells her, grinning madly, and Jessica pats her on the head companionably), she's just -- gone.

"She can't be gone," Taeyeon insists. "She was right here a minute ago! Manager- _oppa_ is going to _kill_ us if he finds out that she's -- "

"Let's not panic," Seohyun says, outwardly calm but a sort of hands-wringing twitchy inside. "Let's just look for her before it's time to go out on stage."

And so they do. Taeyeon and Tiffany go hand-in-hand toward the empty dressing rooms, Seohyun takes Hyoyeon by the hand and leads her out into the hallway, Sooyoung and Yuri practically sprint into the production room, Sunny volunteers to check the miscellaneous nooks and crannies, and Yoona -- Yoona sits on the loveseat, keeping watch because the others don't trust her not to try to diffuse the tension by acting inappropriately and gaudily and ridiculously, and because, knowing that, she asked to stay behind herself.

As it turns out, Jessica unfolds herself from the smallest broom closet known to man and smacks into Tiffany on her way back to the dressing room, and she stands slumped and draws it all in when Tiffany starts chiding her like a mother, her eyes shining, her voice catching when she communicates how collectively worried they were. Taeyeon nods every so often in solidarity, her hand resting low on Tiffany's back, and Jessica apologizes mutely to the both of them, shuffling awkwardly back to the dressing room in her leather mini-skirt and dark top, the dual red pinpoints on her neck meant to symbolize vampire bites fading more and more by the minute.

The rest of them trickle back into the dressing room. Each registers Jessica's sudden reappearance differently, and that marks Yoona as the only one, then, who bothers to clasp Jessica's hand in her own, and Jessica tells her a moment before strutting out onto the stage that she only wanted to be lost for a little while, a "thank you," an equal sign of solidarity.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their publicist had told them exactly once before now that they would never work beyond the local circuit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=20893648#t20893648) and has underwent minor revision since.

Their publicist had told them exactly once before now that they would never work beyond the local circuit -- fuck, the only reason that they had a publicist in the first place was thanks to Sunny's intimate connections within the industry (which is to say that she ran errands for her uncle to butter him up and asked him as sweetly as possibly afterward if she could give him a demo by a group that she knew). "You girls have -- talent," he assured the three of them haltingly, smoothing down the present crispness of his button-down underneath his suit jacket and fidgeting with his tie. "It's been an honest pleasure working with you, from my perspective, and I'm sure the employees at the studio would agree with me."

"They're not letting us record our full-length, are they?" Jessica stated more than inquired, the words bitten off and frosted over, and he nodded after an excruciating pause. "The label has a certain image to uphold, and unfortunately, you girls aren't it." He looked genuinely apologetic for a flash of a second, but Jessica, impassioned in that moment, raised her heeled, booted foot and brought it unceremoniously down onto his shiny, dark loafer.

\--

"You're rash and you're hasty and you're going to get us into some serious trouble one day," Tiffany reminded her almost boredly. It wasn't as if Jessica hadn't heard the speech and its many, many variations countless times before. "I love you, you idiot, but -- "

"The only idiot in this equation is the label," Jessica sniped back, crossing her arms in front of her chest. Her lyrics sheets were sprawled haphazardly across the length of the backseat of their car. Seohyun was possibly sitting on top of a few of them. "And our publicist, and the whole -- the whole industry!" She craned her head back to peer at Seohyun and ask her in clumsy Korean (she was better than Tiffany, though that admittedly didn't say much, and was growing better with every passing day, but Seohyun was still miles ahead of her, the language being her mother tongue) if she agreed.

"Yes," Seohyun agreed in flat, pointed English.

"See?" Jessica hummed smugly. "Seohyun agrees with _me_ , not -- "

"I agree that you're an idiot," Seohyun finished, nodding authoritatively.

"See?" Tiffany mocked under her breath, and Jessica slumped further down into her seat.

\--

The three of them hadn't started the group with an end goal of modest fame and fortune in mind; in fact, Seohyun, easily the most skilled out of all of them (enough so that she had been turning her back on a transfer-beneficial scholarship to Julliard by traveling to California to live with Jessica and Tiffany), had warned them not to get their hopes up.

(She had also warned Jessica and Tiffany away from each other, insisting that professional relationships should never overlap with personal relationships, especially one of their nature, but she had quelled those concerns sheepishly after Jessica and Tiffany conjointly -- and, Jessica would often add proudly, _successfully_ \-- wooed her.)

The promise and taste of at least being able to cut a set of demos in a place that wasn't Tiffany's father's amateur basement studio, though, had proven too potent in the long run, and it stung like the worst sort of rejection to be turned away by even their publicist, the same man who had been with them for well over a year now.

Jessica wanted to throw a brick through his windshield or maybe just egg his house, but Tiffany urged her into bed, flashing her tits snarkily for a too-brief moment when Jessica initially shrugged the suggestion off, and she laid there dozing, Tiffany on her right and Seohyun on her left, half-dreaming lyrics until she'd jolt awake as if she'd been doused in ice-cold water, remembering sourly that there would be no use for lyrics for a while. She still smarted from the rejection; she felt stubborn and resentful and spectacularly drained despite herself, and she buried her face in the warmth and overbearing sweetness of Tiffany's neck, one hand scrabbling around blindly for Seohyun's underneath the bedcovers.

Maybe she'd extract vengeance by penning the best fucking song that the world had ever seen once she regenerated another, much thicker layer of skin, but for now, she wanted to sleep for a long while.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "It's okay," Jessica assures her quietly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21174992#t21174992) and has underwent minor revision since.

"It's okay," Jessica assures her quietly, petting clumsily at her right hip, but Tiffany shifts underneath the bed covers, legs writhing surreal like quilted vines, and shoves her face into the pillow. Jessica hears tiny hitches of breath, like she's not quite sobbing, and her shoulders quake in minute increments when Jessica lays a hand across the narrow length between them. Tiffany has been shedding her weight with snakeskin rapidity lately, and it's apparent in everywhere but her mouth, full and soft, and the spaces behind her ears where Jessica will flick to capture her attention. Even her nose looks a little slimmer, streamlined.

"No, it's _not_ ," she moans miserably, and she smacks Jessica's wandering hand away when it reaches around her shoulders and to her throat. "I feel so -- so _ugly_ now!" she wails.

Jessica carefully retracts her hand, the knuckles freshly bruised from being knocked against the hardwood floor of their practice room after she'd tried to do a handstand to impress Hyoyeon (who had, she noted, one-upped her effortlessly by walking on her hands all the way down the hall and back without breaking a sweat), and she props herself up on one elbow, hair not quite long enough to cover her naked breasts. "You're not," she says, like it's not entirely obvious, and she kisses the curve of Tiffany's cheek. It feels different underneath her mouth.

"Am, too," she huffs, and -- "Ugh, Jess, get off of me, you freak."

Jessica complies, but she curls up against Tiffany's back, anyway. She's warm but clammy, and it's uncomfortable, and she feels so unfamiliar, and Jessica tells her that she understands.

"No, you don't," she says, unusually cold, and Jessica touches at the bridge of her nose. _Not entirely_ , she agrees silently, but she kisses Tiffany's back and says, "Yeah, I do."

She falls asleep only after she's sure that Tiffany is still besides her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It didn't matter because she was gone now, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21380816#t21380816) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica loses one heel (arching, dark), her clutch (small, silver), a roll of bills that she later finds out is worth twenty American dollars (tattered, scribbled upon), and her tube of lipstick (scarlet, waxy) before Tiffany herds her unceremoniously into the back of her car and says, leaving no room for ambiguity, "We're going home."

"I don't want to," Jessica says blankly, letting her clutch slide out of her hands, onto her lap, and finally onto the floor. The clasp, half-undone, gives a little when it smacks against the God-awful rug that covers the temporary damage that she'd inflicted upon the backseat when Yuri walked out of the apartment and, presumably, down to the bar, somewhere, anywhere, it didn't matter because she was gone now, anyway.

"I don't care what you want right now," Tiffany tells her bluntly, her tone more solemn and serious than Jessica had ever heard it before. There was no give to it, no softness, none of the markers of Tiffany's sketched personality. "We're going home, and you're going to let me give you a bath, and then you're going to take a nap."

"I'm not tired," Jessica insists around a yawn.

"I'll make some _guksu jangguk_ , too, for when you wake up," she continues pointedly. "And then maybe we'll watch a movie or something. Do you know where you want to sleep tonight?"

"In her bed," Jessica answers immediately, and Tiffany shakes her head and clicks her tongue gently. "No," she says, "no, you're not sleeping in her bed tonight, Jessica."

"In your bed, then," Jessica says after a long moment.

Tiffany nods in solidarity. "That's a good idea. We can close the door to her room if it -- " She stops, then, considering, and adds, "I think that'd be best."

"I miss her," Jessica says instead.

"I know," Tiffany responds without missing a beat. Jessica can see her blinking furiously in the rear-view mirror.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "we're lost."
> 
> minor correction: they've _been_ lost for the better part of an evening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21474256#t21474256) and has underwent minor revision since.

"we're lost."

minor correction: they've _been_ lost for the better part of an evening. soojung's stomach, hollow as it is, groans impatiently and as if by clockwork ("it must be six o'clock," she remarks breezily as her stomach lets out another rumble), and sunyoung is beginning to feel faintly woozy.

the woman, blanketed by a warm if weak light that throws itself at the walls of the corridor extending behind her, smiles at them, all teeth and no bite to her words when she tuts, "poor things! come inside, i insist on it."

soojung's eyes pause on sunyoung on their way toward matching the curious, giddy gawk of the woman in the doorway, and she mouths, _how can we trust her?_ before sunyoung searches for her hand and grips it tightly.

"alright," she agrees, sure enough for the both of them. "alright."

\--

the woman ("sunny," she informs them -- "isn't that a riot? my roommate prefers the dark; we haven't, i believe, turned on a light switch for a month now!") leads them down the corridor. sunyoung can barely make out the vague shapes in front of her, and her heart thumps in time with the rhythm that soojung is squeezing her hand in.

what sunyoung can only imagine is a cobweb brushes against her cheek; in the dark, sunny slides her hand away.

\--

soojung stands stock-still at the end of the corridor (lest the creatures that must be roaming the building sense her presence, foreign and perhaps tasty, and scoop her into their mouths with their long, fat tongues) while sunyoung lets herself be led into a bedroom ("the" bedroom, if sunny's word is anything to go by -- she desperately and silently prays that it is), where the lady of the house is waiting.

she is sleek, and dark-haired, and waifish, and when she shifts underneath the bed covers, something on her person glitters. sunyoung welcomes the light.

"taeyeon, dear," sunny says pleasantly. "this is -- "

"sunyoung," sunyoung says. her voice is not her own; it shakes, though it is overcompensated by her volume.

"ah," taeyeon hums. "mm. is she alone?"

"there is another waiting out in the hallway," sunny tells her, bowing her head, smiling sharp and bright.

"thank you, sunny," taeyeon praises gently. she shifts again; something on the wall shifts with her. a vine, maybe, it's too dark to tell. "you may leave now. keep the other girl company."

sunny kisses sunyoung's cheek, a smack -- sudden.

taeyeon sits up fully, smiling thinly, and her teeth, they must have been the glint that sunyoung had noticed. "sunyoung," she says, quiet. "you smell like -- " her nose twitches like a rabbit's. " -- like you're scared of me. are you scared?"

"i -- yes," sunyoung falters, admits.

"you should be," she continues coolly. "i'm hungry, sunyoung."

(vines, brightness, darkness -- "i'm hungry, sunyoung," soojung had complained an hour ago.)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain Hwang of the Dread Ship Santa Monica.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21541328#t21541328) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica sticks the fountain pen behind her right ear with a flourish, almost catching it on the hoop earring that she has in at the moment, and says, triumphant and borderline smug, " _There_. You look really _scurvy_ , now, Tiffany!"

"That's Captain Hwang of the Dread Ship Santa Monica," she intones in a snarl that unfurls somewhere in the middle, leaving her face broken open by a grin by the end of it, before she even takes a look in the mirror -- dark, inky mustache. Striped shirt. Bandana tied around the hair that she'd carelessly thrown up. A coat hanger stuck up her sleeve. All she's missing, she thinks, is the eyepatch.

"I can make you an eyepatch out of toilet paper!" Jessica yells in delight, echoing Tiffany's thoughts, clapping her hands together hard enough that Kyungsan stirs in the crib behind them, having fallen asleep in his sea monkey costume.

"Fetch me my eyepatch at once, then, first mate Jessica!" Tiffany growls, waving the coat hanger around menacingly until it slides out from her sleeve and onto the floor. Maintaining complete eye contact with Jessica, she bends down to pick it up and slides it back inside like nothing happened. "And make it snappy," she adds belatedly.

"I don't think pirates say 'snappy,'" Jessica points out sagely.

"I don't think first mates are supposed to correct their captains," Tiffany shoots back coolly.

"One eyepatch, coming right up!" Jessica responds without missing a beat, and she turns on her heel towards the bathroom.

"Argh," Tiffany says softly to the mirror in her absence.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a jesus freak, a voluptuous vixen, and a university student with blood rapidly drying on the front of her sweatshirt walk into a bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21689296#t21689296) and has underwent minor revision since.

a jesus freak, a voluptuous vixen, and a university student with blood rapidly drying on the front of her sweatshirt walk into a bar --

now, stop me if you've heard this one before, but i'm pretty sure that you haven't. a variation on the joke, maybe, where the party girl hogtied up in the trunk escapes or the pretty-boy weighed down with bricks and thrown into a lake finds some inexplicable way to float back up to the surface of the water, but this one? this one's _new_.

\--

"what do you want to drink?" tiffany asks yoona, poking at her thin forearm through the fabric of her sweatshirt. she hasn't spoken to yuri in twenty-four hours, but it's only been twenty-three for tiffany, and besides, no one turns down a free drink -- no one.

"how do i know you aren't going to poison me?" yoona asks in response. her voice is dry, a rasp, but she sounds a fuck of a lot stronger than soyeon ever did.

tiffany directs her attention to sunny, who's picking at the flakes of dried blood and dirt underneath her fingernails. "hey, what did we end up doing with soyeon?"

"we mailed her pointer finger and her clit to jessica," yuri answers, shifting in her seat. "remember? you wanted to mail the middle finger instead, but that was too over-the-top."

"was not," tiffany sneers. "anyway, did we ever poison her?"

"no," yuri answers. she sucks the rest of the dried blood off of her knuckles. "i don't think we've tried poison yet."

tiffany directs her attention back to yoona, who has turned a shade of white that yuri would kill to achieve, full-fledged skinsuit notwithstanding. "see?" she shrugs. "no poison."

"is that what she's worried about?" yuri asks. she's fiddling with the menu now, tracing one finger over what tiffany assumes is the drinks section. "tell her we won't poison her now."

"now?" yoona's skin is now white enough that tiffany might have to reconsider how far yuri would go. a skinsuit is starting to look like a more likely option every passing second.

"oh, now you're not too good to talk to me?" yuri scoffs, eyes still skimming over the menu. "no, of course not now. it'd ruin the surprise."

"yuri really likes surprises," tiffany tells her, smoothing the hair off of her forehead and tucking it behind her ears. she shivers, but it's a barely-there one, as weak as the aftershocks of an orgasm.

"i do," yuri agrees easily, and then she crows in the next breath, "hey, tiffany, we should order you a _bloody mary_." her eyes flicker up from the menu and right to yoona's face. "get it? it's because tiffany spent _two fucking hours_ last night dragging me around downtown, looking for a miniature statue of the virgin mary."

"and i found her, didn't i?" tiffany asks, tilting her chin upward, smug.

"two hours," yuri repeats. " _two hours_ , tiffany."

"i got yoona for you, though," tiffany says, "so we're even."

"i wouldn't call it even," yuri sighs. tiffany's face falls in quick increments until she's fully frowning, and it's only then that yuri adds, "it won't be even until i let you drag me around to find another one."

"oh, _yuri_ ," tiffany breathes, reaching for her hand over the tabletop, the other still wrapped tightly around yoona's wrist. "i love you."

yoona's eyes nearly bore a hole into the tabletop, and she licks her lips. "i'll just have some water," she says slowly.

"and there she goes," yuri groans, "ruining our moment." her hand remains clasped in tiffany's. "one water for the lady, then."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooyoung is already sticking her head out of the window when Mr. Taxi pulls up smoothly in front of the girl's home and lays a hand heavily on the horn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21765584#t21765584) and has underwent minor revision since.

Sooyoung is already sticking her head out of the window when Mr. Taxi pulls up smoothly in front of the girl's ( _Kwon Yuri_ , his forms had read when she'd shuffled through them) home and lays a hand heavily on the horn. Her eyes land on the girl immediately, and -- and "girl" isn't the right word, not really, not with _those_ curves and _that_ gaze, too single-minded and intense for a _girl_.

"She's a _woman_ ," Taeyeon breathes; someone jostles her hard, and someone else (Sunny, from the ever-sweet tone of her voice) whistles long and low and warns, "Hey, now, Tae, don't be getting too excited."

Sooyoung would agree, but she's too busy watching Yuri gather the few earthly possessions that Mr. Taxi allows them all to take with them and slink over to the vehicle, hips already plainly curved and swaying even in the deceptively dowdy clothing that she's dressed in. Mr. Taxi will be fitting her for her uniforms soon enough; Sooyoung finds herself immediately and eagerly anticipating the teeny-tiny skirts and tight-fitting leather pants, though she knows firsthand how inconvenient the whole line of get-ups can be.

She also finds herself disappointed when she's directed to the backseat instead of the middle ones, but that's neither here nor there.

"Hi," Taeyeon breathes when Yuri makes eye contact with her; she quirks an eyebrow but greets Taeyeon with a nod of her head.

"I promise that we're not all that creepy," Sooyoung assures her, craning her head back to catch Yuri's eye, as well. There's no swelling music (except for Mr. Taxi ratcheting up the volume on the radio) and no sudden rays of light reaching down from the sky to bathe them all in gold, but Yuri smiles genuinely in her direction, and Sooyoung feels something in her gut hotly kick and punch.

"We really are, though," Sunny snorts, and Jessica smacks her arm, because Jessica is their designated arm-smacker.

"I believe you," Yuri tells Sooyoung, huddling her possessions a little closer to her body, and there it is again, the kicking and punching. _Fuck_ , but Sooyoung's body is violent.

This may prove to be a problem.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "What do you want, Jessica?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=21878992#t21878992) and has underwent minor revision since.

"What do you want, Jessica?" you ask me over dinner. You have half of a noodle stuck to your bottom lip and you smell like the inside of my mother's bedroom closet, musty and faint with perfume, and it makes my stomach turn, makes me take another drink from the bottle before passing it to you. "More photographs and invitations? Less responsibility?"

Yes, I would like a photograph of us from our vacation in Tokyo, and, yes, I would like for the neighbors to invite you instead of me over to their house for card games, and, yes, I would like for you to walk the dog around the block a couple of times to wear him out so that he won't keep us up during the night instead of making me do it after a day of work.

And, fuck, the bills are piling up, but you leave the jobs section of the newspaper flipped open on the table exactly where I left it in the morning. You can't even do up the breakfast dishes while I'm gone. You sit and you sit and you don't _do_ anything with me anymore.

Do you even remember Tokyo? I do. It was a gaudier Seoul to me, but you steered me through the dizziness like a seasoned explorer, and it felt right, then, with your fingers curled around my wrists like a vice. You leaned in close to my ears and pointed out the landmarks and the slums with equal intakes of breath. You'd sweat through your nice clothing carting me around behind you, and you'd feed me bites of street food right from your dirty fingers because you said that we'd end up sick either way, and it was like you knew Tokyo like one knew their own lover, intimate and unyielding. We fucked in hotels with room service pounding at the doors because we could afford to waste their time.

The neighbors ask where you are now, and I tell them that you're busy. Maybe I'd be more convincing if you'd walk the dog every once in a while, huh? That was a joke, by the way. You were never the quickest to the uptake, but I was never a comedian to begin with.

I never tell them that you're inside of the house. I tell them that, oh, yes, it's a shame, but Tiffany's father has fallen ill, and they cough awkwardly and shift because your father has been ill for a year now, hasn't he? But they buy it because the woman sitting at their dining room table is eying her cards too intensely and those eyes are wide and dark and she smells like rot, like death.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "My life is really weird," she says to no one in particular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=22640336#t22640336) and has underwent minor revision since.

Taeyeon is waiting patiently for Tiffany when she arrives home. She has a small animal caught in the clench of her maw, and her knuckles are smeared in blood that, much to Tiffany's nausea, is still visibly wet, and her hair is ragged and wild and knotted, and her sweatshirt is torn from the right shoulder all the way down, in a neat jagged line, to her bellybutton, and there's still a streak of fur curling around her breast, and her tail is thumping against the wooden planks of the deck, and Tiffany needs to stop cataloging things so extensively because she feels a little like she's going to topple over onto the driveway if she doesn't make it up to the deck first, and Taeyeon might find herself curious enough to sniff at her unconscious body, which would be _weird_.

"My life is really weird," she says to no one in particular, wobbling a little on her feet, and Taeyeon lets the animal slide from her mouth onto the deck, letting out a companionable howl, head perking up.

"It's weird," she repeats, this time to Taeyeon directly, and the strip of fur recedes a little farther into her skin.

"It is kind of weird, isn't it?" Taeyeon agrees, blinking owlishly, attempting to subtly slide the dead animal off of the deck and onto the ground. She doesn't succeed, as the animal lands in the fountain that Tiffany had set up for the birds. Taeyeon had mostly chased her tail for the duration of the construction process, but there was something to be said about the apologetic way she'd curled up into Tiffany's side afterward.

"Maybe a little more than weird," Tiffany says.

"..." Taeyeon responds.

"Were you going to finish that?" Tiffany asks after a beat.

"..." Taeyeon answers.

"How about hamburgers instead?" Tiffany suggests, forcing a smile. "You can eat yours raw, if you want."

"Hamburgers sound good," Taeyeon says finally. Tiffany clacks up the stairs in her heels and bends down to Taeyeon's level to kiss the side of her mouth. She tastes like the inside of Jessica's steel-reinforced coffee cup when Tiffany steals swigs from it.

Taeyeon's nostrils flare, her head pressed awkwardly to Tiffany's breast at this angle, and Tiffany strokes the back of her neck once before letting herself inside of the house.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of things that Tiffany does are done because it's Jessica telling her to do them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://g-odalisque13.livejournal.com/40887.html?thread=1171895#t1171895) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica tells Tiffany to crawl like a puppy dog over to the spilled mug of coffee on the floor and lap it up, and Tiffany does because it's Jessica. A lot of things that Tiffany does are done because it's Jessica telling her to do them, up to and including hacking a little because coffee soaked into the carpet tastes an awful lot like dust bunnies and too-sweet whipped toppings, and Tiffany wants to ask her if the lingering pesticides from last week's Battle of the Bugs, where Tiffany sat on the kitchen table in her sundress and a scarf that laid loosely over the bridge of her nose when she wrapped it around her head to block out the smell and Jessica let out a bleating noise of victory every time she found another writhing group of ants or long-legged group of spiders to spray ("This one looks like Sooyoung!" she cackled at one point during the battle, brandishing a dead Daddy Long-Legs in the palm of her hand, and Tiffany screamed loud enough that the neighbor's rottweiler outside started growling) would poison her.

She manages to lick most of it up, sucking sadly from the carpet fibers when the surface material is cleared away, when Jessica leans over the arm of the couch and pets her gently on the head. "Thanks," she says breezily, and she picks the mug off of the floor, setting it on the coffee table. It's the least erotic thing that Tiffany has ever been asked to do, short of helping Yuri dispose of a dead rat in the dorm (she said a little prayer for it and promptly sprinted back inside to wash her hands), and it's nice, trimming the edge off of their morning. She's still sleepy, and her mouth tastes like morning breath and something identifiably furnished, and Jessica flips a page in her magazine and tells her to curl up next to her on the couch.

"I'm going to eat your pussy," she says when Tiffany has made a comfortable spot resting on top of Jessica's legs, and she's so _vulgar_ and cutting, and Tiffany feels rewarded already. "Then I'm going to sit on your face, get it all wet, take the taste out of your mouth."

Tiffany doesn't touch Jessica because Jessica never asked her to, but she wants to stroke the calluses on her damaged feet and thank her.

"In a minute, though," she clarifies. "Let me finish this article first."

Tiffany watches her breath stir the little patch of unshaven hair on Jessica's right leg and hides her smile.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Are you breaking up with me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=23149520#t23149520) and has underwent minor revision since.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Sooyoung asks Hyoyeon over a cup of coffee. The styrofoam does nothing to protect her hands from the scald and steam seeping through, but that's at least half of what's keeping her awake right now. The other half is Hyoyeon peering at her from over the rim of her own cup with an expression that reads, "Sooyoung, you're insane."

"Sooyoung, you're insane," Hyoyeon says a moment later, taking a slow, methodical sip. "I'd never break up with you." She takes another slow sip and adds thoughtfully, "Unless you do something to make me break up with you."

"That's not exactly comforting," Sooyoung says a little desperately.

Hyoyeon dumps the rest of her coffee down the kitchen sink and pads out of the room.

\--

"Are you cheating on me?" Sooyoung asks that afternoon.

Hyoyeon is tapping out a message to Jessica on her phone that reads _sooyoung wont stop asking me all these questions and its getting annoying_ , but after she sends it, she lets it slide out of her hands and onto her lap, giving Sooyoung all of her attention.

(Well, most of her attention, anyway, since she stubbed her toe a little earlier and it's still throbbing in pain and it looks a little purple if she squints her eyes in the right light and maybe she should have worn shoes with more support in the heels instead of the designer flip-flops that Tiffany got her for her birthday last year -- )

" -- and I will make sure that you never get another dance solo again," Sooyoung finishes. Her eyes are wide and wild, and her fists unconsciously clench and unclench, and she's even stopped halfway through her sandwich, the rest of it splattered on the floor.

Hyoyeon's phone buzzes in her lap, and she flips it open immediately.

\--

"Why haven't you been sleeping with me lately?" Sooyoung asks her that night, wearing indecently short sleep pants and a tank top. Hyoyeon is busy staring at the tiny mole between her breasts, but when Sooyoung smacks her in the arm, she splutters and averts her eyes.

"Is that what all of the questions have been about?" she shoots back.

"I was _sleuthing_ ," Sooyoung hisses. "I thought that I was being subtle. I used leading questions."

"You asked me if I was going to break up with you and then if I was cheating on you." She coughs awkwardly into her fist. "And _then_ you pinched Jessica in the neck and gave her a spasm when she told you to shut up."

" _Sleuthing_ ," Sooyoung repeats testily. "So you're not breaking up with me or cheating on me?"

"No," Hyoyeon tells her, rolling her eyes. "I've just had some back pain for the past few days and wanted the bed to myself."

"Oh," Sooyoung says, and then, "Should I give you a massage? They don't call me Six-Fingered Sooyoung for nothing."

"No one calls you - never mind," Hyoyeon sighs. "A massage would be nice."


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm pretty sure that that wasn't a pigeon," Tiffany says mildly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=23246800#t23246800) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica coaxes the last swallow of glitter-coated rice out of the plastic bag and into the awaiting mouth of what looks to Tiffany like a very hungry bluebird. It clips her finger with the sharp tip of its beak before fluttering away in a huff, but she smiles anyway and brushes off her hands.

"I'm pretty sure that that wasn't a pigeon," Tiffany says mildly.

"I'm pretty sure that you should shut up and kiss me," Jessica snaps. "Well, at least in ... two minutes. Three if it's pregnant instead of fat and one if it hasn't eaten today, though."

Tiffany takes advantage of that small pause and reapplies her lip gloss, touching at her bottom lip gently with the pad of her right index finger, and before she knows it, Jessica's pulling her in.

"Three," she says. Tiffany rests her forehead against Jessica's.

"Two," she says. Tiffany cups her hip, curling her fingers into the belt loops of her jeans.

"One," she says. Tiffany briefly wonders if she remembered to put the cap back on the lip gloss tube before Jessica tugged at her arm.

"Boom," Jessica mouths against Tiffany's lips, the bird letting out a spectacular squawk before it pops like a balloon in mid air.

"That wasn't a proper kiss," Tiffany says once the mixture has settled on the sidewalk, the rest of it having ridden on the wind and right into their hair. "You cheater."

Jessica tucks a stray strand of hair behind Tiffany's ear and leans in again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm pretty sure that we just won because I wished on a shooting star last night."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6608.html?thread=23246800#t23246800) and has underwent minor revision since.

"Now, I know it sounds stupid," Amber begins once they're herded into the van, "but I'm pretty sure that we just won because I wished on a shooting star last night."

"You're right," Krystal says mildly, looking at her cell phone instead of Amber. "That _does_ sound stupid. You do realize that we have fans voting for us and all, right?"

"Don't crush her dreams," Victoria scolds from the back, rubbing soothing circle into a still-sobbing Luna's back. She smiles winningly in Amber's direction. "Thanks for snagging us that win, Amber!"

"You're welcome," Amber responds before tilting her head against the window and wishing on another star, this one regrettably stationary, for Krystal to put her phone away and talk to her.


	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica could deal with another maybe-dyke in the group if she wasn't _Taeyeon_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://smokecake.livejournal.com/683.html?thread=427#t427) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica loses her virginity to a woman named Jihye in the alleyway behind a market three blocks from her dormitory when she's fifteen. It's the kind of story that she would tell at parties if she were able to sneak out and go to any parties in the first place; as it is, she lays her head next to Hyoyeon's one night and tells her that she likes girls. "I think so, anyway," she clarifies tentatively, waiting for Hyoyeon to push her off of the bed or storm away disgusted, and a moment passes before Hyoyeon snores lightly and Jessica turns her face into the pillow to groan.

It was rough and quick and dirty - not in the sense that Jessica ever feels ashamed of it, but in the sense that Jihye had dirt all over her apron and pants. She came and Jihye, sparse grey hairs and all, went back inside of the restaurant and it was only later that night that she realized that she was spotting because Jihye punctured her hymen with her fingers. As far as first times went, it could have been worse. It could have been with, like, _Tiffany_ during her brief flash of same-sex experimentation, and everyone would have been screwed as a result because there was _no way_ that Jessica would have lived down finger-fucking the object of Taeyeon's creepy fixation, which --

\-- Which, yeah, whatever. Jessica could deal with another maybe-dyke in the group ("Statistically, one out of every ten people is attracted on some level to the same sex," Seohyun tells her years later, quietly supportive in her own awkward way, and Jessica doesn't remind her that there are only nine of them in the group in the first place) if she wasn't _Taeyeon_ , but she was, and Jessica could make a million wonky hand-hearts with the woman on stage and they'd still be frigid as fuck off stage because Taeyeon was so self-loathing and Jessica liked to bring home markedly older women under the guise of training or some other flimsy excuse and eat them out where Taeyeon could hear the slick and the smack.

("I think that they call that sexual tension," Yoona tells her pointedly, patting her knee, and Jessica ignores her because Yoona knows nothing about intra-group sexual dynamics unless you count the time where she and Sunny did a little more than kissing during that one game of spin the bottle.)

"Are you mad because I'm not Tiffany?" she had asked her once, everyone else shoveling food into their mouths as fast as they could or already asleep, and Taeyeon had nodded hesitantly. "Are you mad because I'm -- you know -- and Tiffany's not?" she rephrased hastily, and Taeyeon's nod wasn't as hesitant then, and then Jessica went and drank the soju hidden in the very back of the fridge because she and Taeyeon had to film a CF tomorrow and she was going to need to be practically dead to the world if she was going to face her after that.

"That's why we're never going to work," she tells her not very long after that. _I must be a late-in-life masochist or something_ , she thinks to herself. "You won't compromise."

"I shouldn't have to," Taeyeon says, eying the door warily, and Jessica tells her that she's never going to get laid at this rate if she doesn't give up on Tiffany before stomping out of the room and slamming blindly into the hot topic herself.

"Are you and Taeyeon fighting?" she asks a little sadly.

"When are we not?" Jessica bites off, and she resists the urge to run her mouth off about Taeyeon's dirty little secret only because she'd like to keep her own confined to Seohyun and Yoona. Telling Yuri before was a huge mistake on her part; she didn't want a repeat performance with Tiffany.

"I wish that you'd guys resolve this -- little problem," Tiffany says haltingly in English because Taeyeon is peeking her head out of her room and into the hallway.

"Me, too," Jessica says honestly, and she turns on her heel.


	16. Chapter 16

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Hi! I'm Tiffany."
> 
> "That's not what your name tag says."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://thebellgoes.livejournal.com/6072.html?thread=14264#t14264) and has underwent minor revision since.

Tiffany takes one look at her new roommate and says, far too chipper and bright after being carted around on a tour for the better part of two hours and then spending an additional twenty minutes clinging to her father's arm before finally letting him leave, "Hi! I'm Tiffany."

"That's not what your name tag says," Hyoyeon tells her, hopping down from the top bunk only to approach Tiffany and flick it. Her fingers mostly brush the side of her tit instead, which makes Tiffany's cheeks flare up with heat. Hyoyeon bends her knees to get a closer look and mouths, "Stephanie," with little success.

"Yeah, but my friends call me Tiffany," she sniffs. They don't, really, but her -- _roommate_ doesn't need to know that. "Anyway, what's your name?"

"Hyoyeon," she says with equally aloof derision. "I'm a dancer. Is that what you're here for?"

"Oh, oh, no," Tiffany clarifies, giggling a little. The thought of her as a dancer -- belly button piercings, multiple earrings, poorly-dyed hair, midriff-baring shirts -- is laughable. "I'm a singer." Her eyes take on a far-away, dreamy look that causes a giggle to bubble up in Hyoyeon's own throat. "I've always liked to sing, but my daddy says that I'm good enough to sing professionally."

"Of course he did," Hyoyeon says, and Tiffany never loses her smile, even when Hyoyeon swiftly exits the room, making a temporary escape.

\--

Hyoyeon can't shake her off for long, though, mostly because she tracks her down in the other wing of the dormitory after unpacking and finds her knelt uncomfortably on the floor, hands braced palm-down on the concrete, face buried between Min's spread legs.

"I'm -- oh, my god, I'm -- I'm so sorry, oh, my god," she practically shrieks, groping blindly for the doorknob and slamming the door behind her. Hyoyeon pauses for a moment, but Min kicks her side softly and says, "I'm not done yet."

"I know," Hyoyeon responds, pulling back from Min's cunt to speak, and she can feel the tremors of Min's obnoxious cackling travel through her thighs. "Who was she?" she asks, gasping a little when Hyoyeon closes her teeth lightly around her clit.

"No one," Hyoyeon says.

\--

"What was that?" Hyoyeon asks flatly when she finally gathers up enough courage to return to their room.

"I should be asking you the same question," Tiffany says shakily. "Who was -- what were you -- can you even -- "

"She's my friend, Min," Hyoyeon answers. "I was getting her off, and, yes, you totally have the equipment for that." She pauses, considering. "Unless you're asking if you can do that in the dorms, in which case, my answer is still yes, though you have to be careful. Any other questions?"

"Why?" Tiffany asks, and her eyes are dark and wide and serious. She looks a little like she'd been crying. Hyoyeon forces down a sudden swelling of guilt and starts, "Well, because -- " before Tiffany holds a hand up and she falls silent in response.

"Why her?" she specifies.

"She's my friend," Hyoyeon repeats. "And I like girls, so it makes sense, I guess, to do it with her."

"I could guess that," she seethes. "Why would you do it with _her_ , though. She's -- I saw her out in the courtyard with another girl, smoking and then -- and -- she's got a girlfriend already."

"That's Jia," Hyoyeon says, rolling her eyes. "Don't worry about it. Min and I aren't dating, and she's not dating Jia, either."

"So you're not dating anyone right now?" Tiffany hedges carefully, and -- and there could be a million reasons why she's so concerned about her dating record at the moment, but the sour look, the stuttering, the genuine concern --

"No," Hyoyeon tells her slowly. "No, I'm not dating any right now."

Tiffany's shoulders visibly slump with relief, but she plays it off as smoothly as possible. "Good," she says, wrinkling her nose. "I don't think that I could deal with a third girl in the room all of the time. It's cramped enough as it is in here!"

Hyoyeon fakes a weak, companionable laugh and nods her head.


	17. Chapter 17

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her mother had told her often that angels came in many sizes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6879.html?thread=23743199#t23743199) and has underwent minor revision since.

Her mother had told her often that angels came in many sizes. "Short ones, tall ones," she'd rattle off. "Fat ones, skinny ones, boy ones, girl ones -- even ones shaped like animals!" Tiffany had used to want an angel in the shape of the puppy that her parents would never let her own, and then one in the shape of a horse because all of her friends at school knew how to ride horses and she made her parents buy her a million notebooks bearing stallions and ponies on their covers as a result, and then one in the shape of a boy with washboard abs and a beard to show that he was rugged yet sensitive, and then one in the shape of a girl: one with flowing, blond hair and perfectly kissable lips and an icy stare that turned warm when touched by the fingertips of a lover.

She found her angel in Jessica, though she would never tell her as much.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ten things that Sunny wants to tell Taeyeon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6879.html?thread=24479967#t24479967) and has underwent minor revision since.

10\. My first time was with another trainee -- a girl, of course, with the worst haircut that I'd ever seen until Hyoyeon was introduced to the stylists, and fingernails that she really should have trimmed before she decided to finger me, and crooked teeth that felt awkward against my tongue. You still think that it was you, which is flattering but naive, and fuck, _fuck_ , I wish that it had been you.

9\. I asked the doctors whose knives I went under to surgically remove the scar right below my knee because I couldn't bear the thought of my legs suddenly being put on display and being marked so obviously, and no, I don't care much that they never emphasize my legs, that they shove me to the back of the formations with you, because I care, because _I_ know that it's there.

8\. I ate the leftover rice in the refrigerator that was meant for you a week or so ago. I'm not sorry. They didn't let me eat until I'd gotten the choreography down and you should know firsthand how hard this dance is. The only reason Sooyoung shouldered the blame is because I gave her a couple of spoonfuls.

7\. I think that Sooyoung or Tiffany are much better for you than I am because they've been your friends for so long and I couldn't stand you when we first met. I hid it well because, in case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty fucking good at hiding things. I believe that Sooyoung and Tiffany genuinely appreciate you more, though I love you the most. You know that about me already, though.

6\. No matter how many times that I complain about it, I don't mind rubbing the kinks out of your feet. You don't have to hide your face when you ask me to, either, since mine are just as banged up as yours. We wear the same size and height of heel, remember?

5\. I almost wish that you wouldn't drink as much water as you do to rehydrate. I like eating you out the most when you're wet with bitter.

4\. That funny little laugh that you have makes me want to punch out a window. If my _aegyo_ is obnoxious, your laugh is twice as much so.

3\. I finger-fucked your cousin when she came to tour the building. It was her first and last time with a girl and she couldn't look me in the eye afterward. Sort of reminded me of you.

2\. I also finger-fucked Tiffany because you were never going to be her first and I wanted it to be someone who you actually trust to do so.

1\. We are quiet and mischievous and mismatched and I love you more than I will ever let you know.


	19. Chapter 19

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica is --

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://ohsugarandsalt.livejournal.com/16125.html?thread=109053#t109053) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica is skinny jeans and her ex-boyfriend's stolen plaid button-downs. Jessica is the thin, snaking cord of tinny, shitty ear phones plugged into a Discman plastered with robot stickers and a bumper sticker from Hawaii that says, "Wish you were here!" in looping script. Jessica is whiskey in the morning and lukewarm mugs of coffee in the afternoon. Jessica is warm milk when she can't sleep and cough medicine so that she can. Jessica is an uneven fringe, asymmetrical bangs, hair cropped close to her head, a beanie to hide it every step of the way. Jessica is pedaling her bicycle through Seoul and cutting through traffic just for the thrill, the potential for danger. Jessica is Jaurim blasting through her open bedroom windows and Owen Pallett when she comes back from the states. Jessica is moshing in the crowd and swaying lazily on stage when the vocalist pulls her next to him. Jessica is big-name ballads on karaoke nights and hairline-fractured knees when she trips on her way back to the bar. Jessica is kissing Yuri's cheek when they're huddled in the shade in July and licking spilled liquor from her fingers when her hands are shaky enough to tip over the bottle. Jessica is crying when she sings, a reedy voice, a fistful of bills at the end of the night. Jessica is "Mister" in an obnoxiously high-pitched voice and "Oh!" when she talks about how much she wants to fuck those long-legged SM girls. Jessica is doing it to make Yuri jealous. Jessica is biting Yuri's thighs in apology. Jessica is cold when the sun sets and the kitchen windows are open. Jessica is argumentative, adventurous, unable to pay the bills. Jessica is tugging Yuri behind her to the airport anyway.

Yuri is in love with her, a passive figure in the story of her life.


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hara is in the process of sliding Jessica's tiny shorts down the length of her legs when someone lays a heavy fist against the door and says more than asks, "Are you ready to load into the van, Jessica?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6879.html?thread=24627167#t24627167) and has underwent minor revision since.

Hara is in the process of sliding Jessica's tiny shorts down the length of her legs (and oh, what legs they are, slim and wax-smooth and milky; Hara peeks down through one leg hole at her own and feels a very small pang of what might be jealousy tap twice at her heart) when someone lays a heavy fist against the door and says more than asks, "Are you ready to load into the van, Jessica?"

 _Fuck_ , Jessica mouths to the ceiling, tipping her head back, and then -- "In a minute, Sooyoung!" she calls back, unbearably sweet and sharply tinged, biting on the tip of her tongue every few seconds before Sooyoung calls back that oh, sure, in a minute, that's totally fine, she'll just go and tell the rest of the girls that _Jessica_ needs another minute and they'll all just have to swelter in the van until she's ready to leave, and she finally sucks it back into her mouth.

"Sorry about that," she says, wiggling out of her underwear. Hara still has her shorts dangling loosely by the waistband from her pointer finger, which is sort of embarrassing in retrospect, and she's still a little wet from the anticipation, which is much more so. "Think you can get me off in five minutes? I don't want Sooyoung to bust the door down, and I know that she can do it because she did it when I was with Gyuri, too."

"Isn't Gyuri amazing?" Hara groans, sinking a little further down onto the floor. Her knees hurt a bit, but she's used to it. "With the -- " She cups her own breasts, then, and Jessica peers down appreciatively from her vantage point, looming above her.

"Yeah, with the -- " she says, sliding her hands up the length of her torso to cup her breasts, too, and Hara groans again.

"Five minutes," Jessica reminds her delicately, sliding her hands a little further so that they're resting on the buttons on her top. "Well, probably four, now, I don't know."

"I know," Hara says.


	21. Chapter 21

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jessica finds the lamp inside of the attic of her grandmother's house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/6879.html?thread=25518559#t25518559) and has underwent minor revision since.

Jessica finds the lamp inside of the attic of her grandmother's house. She had been snooping around mostly for something antique or decadent or both, preferably in her size and color and inexplicably free of dust and mold, but the attic was an long-unexplored landscape which tempted her adventurous fingers into overturning almost each and every item until she stumbled across the lamp: smooth except for where it was crusted in gold glitter, golden, knobbed on its lid. She rubbed at it with the heel of her hand, intended to wipe off the dust and search for inscriptions -- the possibility of it being a dollar-store prop was strong, but maybe her grandmother was an avid collector of exotics -- and dropped it with a yelp when it started internally vibrating.

Not more than five seconds later, a baby-faced woman stood in front of her, clad head to toe in what looked suspiciously like a military uniform gone horribly awry.

"Wait, was my grandma secretly a war veteran?" she blurts out before thinking.

"Of course not," the woman says, brushing off her clothing, the whiteness of it all yellowed a bit with what Jessica imagined to be age. She had seen enough repeat viewings of _Aladdin_.

"Oh," Jessica said, and then, "Who are you?"

"Seo Joohyun," she introduced herself, bowing neatly after a moment. "You can call me Seohyun for now. I'm contractually obligated to respond to whatever name that you select for me, however."

"Seohyun is fine," Jessica answered. "Also, what the hell is going on?"

Seohyun smiled politely. It didn't quite reach her eyes. "You rubbed the lamp that I was imprisoned in, therefore I am now _your_ genie," she explained easily, as if she were simply running through the motions instead of gently breaking it to Jessica that she now owned someone who popped out of a lamp. "I was your grandmother's genie and, before that, I was the genie of a wealthy business man. I can run through the history of my ownership, if you would like."

"That's fine," Jessica told her weakly. "But I get, like, three wishes and all of that?"

"You're allowed as many wishes as you would like. There are limits and restrictions, of course, which we can also run through." She straightened her top and clacked her shoes together. "First, though, I encourage you to make your very first wish. It's best if you get it over with as soon as possible." She wrinkled her nose. "First wishes are often very awkward."

"Well, then," Jessica said, "I might as well go for the gold. I wish that you'd -- "

"Oh, no," Seohyun told her. "You don't need to follow the 'I wish' template! Simple instructions and orders are more than sufficient."

" -- Kiss me," she finished.

"Oh," Seohyun said. "That is _very_ awkward. Congratulations." She leaned in and kissed Jessica once, dryly, on the mouth. She tasted like the attic smelt. "That will make an excellent anecdote."

"You can tell me about the rules now," Jessica said, looking away. "You know, so I don't screw up or whatever."

"Fantastic idea, Ms. ... " She paused. "I'm sorry, but I didn't catch your name."

"Jessica," she said. "My name is Jessica."


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooyoung suggests that they film themselves the next time that they fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26231730#t26231730) and has underwent minor revision since.

Sunny has grown up on photographs, on still, silent images, on glossy spreads in magazines that she had bullied her older guy friends into buying for her, so it makes sense that she's taken aback when Sooyoung suggests that they film themselves the next time that they fuck. "That's not a good idea," Sunny tells her over and over again, uncharacteristically cautious if understandably so, and Sooyoung promises her that the tape will never leave their hands. "I won't leak it until we're old enough to retire to America," she says, wriggling her eyebrows, and Sunny eyes the camera again.


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26231218#t26231218) and has underwent minor revision since.

They pack some of their clothes and most of their electronics and all of their money and -- they leave. Just leave. There's no discussion beyond "We should go" and "Yes, we should" and maybe a little bit of heated half-groaning when Hyoyeon treads on Taeyeon's toes reaching across the bed and Taeyeon suddenly bursts into tears in the women's bathroom five minutes before they need to board their flight. There are no vague text messages or regretful phone calls. The stewards don't even offer complimentary snacks once they're up in the air. There's quiet, there's Europe, there they are.


	24. Chapter 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I could have been something, you know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26236082#t26236082) and has underwent minor revision since.

"I could have been something, you know," Gyuri seethes. "I certainly don't -- I mean, I'm thankful for this position! How many women my age can brag to their friends that they work for one of the biggest names in the bridal fashion world right now? Not many! It's just that -- weddings, you know. Weddings. I'm too young to be fitting women for the beginning of the rest of their lives, you know? Well, of course you know."

Sunghee blinks once, slow and methodical, and says, "I don't mean to be rude, but are you finished yet?"


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suzy is slow to change once dance practice is over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26237874#t26237874) and has underwent minor revision since.

Suzy is slow to change once dance practice is over. She mostly sits and toys with the pull-strings on her sweatshirt and watches Fei slide her bracelets back on and fakes a cough into her clenched fist just to break the silence until Jia rolls her eyes, slides her sweatpants up the length of her legs, and calls across the length of the room, " _Yah_ , Suzy, are you sick or something? You were -- off today."

Suzy pulls the strings a little tighter. If she tries hard enough, maybe she'll strangle herself and then Jia will feel bad about prodding that which dare not be prodded. "I'm fine," she says slowly.

Fei snorts but says nothing, gathering her gym bag and waving in their general direction before making a swift if underwhelming exit.

"I'm not trying to snoop or anything," Jia clarifies. "It's just that if something's wrong, you can always tell me, hm? Or Fei, but -- well, you can call me any time. You don't have to hide things from me, from us."

"I know," Suzy says as slowly as before. "I'll keep that in mind."

Jia doesn't hear from Suzy for the rest of the week.


	26. Chapter 26

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You need to make up your mind, Tiffany."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26238898#t26238898) and has underwent minor revision since.

"You're so -- " Jessica says before stopping. She has her phone set on its speaker function, loud enough for Taeyeon to hear without having to leave her vantage point from the seat next to her but quiet enough that she leans in close enough that Jessica can smell her, shampoo and deodorant and the wool from her sweater. "You need to make up your mind, Tiffany, that's all. None of us want to fight with you or with each other."

On the other end of the line, Tiffany sniffles audibly. "You're asking me to choose between my friend and my girlfriend."


	27. Chapter 27

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna is a breath of fresh air in the staleness of Soojin's apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26237106#t26237106) and has underwent minor revision since.

Luna is a breath of fresh air in the staleness of Soojin's apartment. Windows that she hadn't cracked since moving in are now almost always open and letting in fat rays of sunshine, dirtied dishes that she fears were possibly sentient are now clean and, when the mood strikes her, occasionally bearing homemade cuisine, and clothes that Soojin had slept on once or twice during some of her darker, less easily remembered periods are now not only wearable but smell a little like flowers. Soojin would question Luna, but if she's being honest, she doesn't want to ruin the magic.


	28. Chapter 28

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I'm not leaving _you_ ; this isn't the end of _us_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26547122#t26547122) and has underwent minor revision since.

It doesn't blindside her. Collectively, they had understood that Bekah was destined for more than an increasingly smaller role in their songs long before the announcement was ever officially made; Gahee -- she could feel it settling in her stomach, and it shouldn't have mattered, really, but it did, because these sorts of things tended not to lose their impact no matter how many times that she had experienced them in the past. Bekah would make a modest living off of her designs and the mostly-negligible but relevant press that she would receive because of her affiliation with After School and maybe sometimes she would visit Gahee in the dormitory.

But diverging from the group meant scheduling conflicts and punctual upsets and Gahee would sit alone at enough restaurants next to or across from an empty seat meant for Bekah that she might as well, shit, start a world tour of her very own, get her picture taken next to an Elvis impersonator outside of the Hard Rock Café or something, and Bekah would never once call her and -- and she couldn't do it even if she knew that she could. They weren't promoting but she couldn't exactly be caught crying in a women's bathroom stall in an airport, either, which is exactly what she planned on doing as soon as the opportunity arose.

"We'll keep in touch, right?" Bekah tells her while the rest of the group sighs and sniffles and pats her gently on both of her knees, and when they're alone, she kisses the bags under Gahee's eyes and says, quiet and intent and clumsy, "I'm not leaving _you_ ; this isn't the end of _us_ ," and it all feels too soon, too quick, like the kick-punch pinch of spraining an ankle on stage or bending a finger too far back out of boredom on the way to the studio.

"I'm not leaving you." "This isn't the end of us." We've just begun and we're already ending.


	29. Chapter 29

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seohyun is more flexible than people give her credit for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was originally posted [here](http://kpopficsmeme.livejournal.com/7090.html?thread=26677170#t26677170) and has underwent minor revision since.

Seohyun is more flexible than people give her credit for. Stoic, stiff, wooden, robotic, inhuman -- she takes it in stride because it tells her that she's doing _something_ right even if everyone else seems to think of it as somehow inherently wrong. It tells her that she is responsible and clean-cut and wholesome. She's the reliable fallback, the one you'll find settled down with a family and children and a steady profession while the rest of the girls are fucking other girls or snorting cocaine or floundering in debt, at the very least. She's the one who Yonghwa won't shut up about. She's the one with her hymen still fully intact.

She doesn't have to be that around Nicole, though; she can scrub _maknae_ off of her like traces of day-old make-up with cleansing pads and be -- Joohyun. _Joohyun_ is a young woman from Seoul who sometimes goes out clubbing with her girl friends and girlfriend but mostly chooses to stay indoors or, if the mood strikes her, hike. She takes a slice of pizza from the refrigerator and eats it cold, a drink from Nicole's bottle of soju even if it's lukewarm. She doesn't like to be fingered but Nicole will eat her out when the mood is right. She wears socks that are maybe a little dirty and sleeps in until one o'clock in the afternoon. She does these things because she _can_.


End file.
